Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, Preview, TV | Tagged: bbc, bbc america, bbc one, bleeding cool, cable, chris chibnall, coronavirus, doctor who, graham, jodie whittaker, paul cornell, Pete McTighe, preview, russell t davies, Ryan, short story, steven moffat, streaming, tardis, television, tv, Yaz

New Doctor Who Story Finds 13th Doctor and Companions In Isolation

The flow of fresh, original content from a bevy of Doctor Who pros continues this week, with writer Paul Cornell ("Father's Day," "The Family of Blood," "Human Nature") penning a new short story released by the BBC. Following Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, Chris Chibnall, and Pete McTighe's online tales, Cornell's "The Shadow Passes" finds Jodie Whittaker's Doctor and her companions dealing with being trapped in an underground bunker for three weeks after a "Death Moon" forces our heroes and the population of the planet Calapia to seek shelter. As the Doctor looks to ease her companions' time during isolation, we learn a bit more about what makes her tick. But this is Doctor Who, people: don't think for a second the Doctor, Yaz, Graham, and Ryan won't be doing their part to help those who helped them.

In the following excerpt, the Doctor explains to Yaz how she compensates for her social awkwardness by constantly being in "task mode" so that others won't "get tired" of her. Yaz sees this as a trait in the Doctor she's noticed since they met: her willingness to make herself look small. For the Doctor, it's about not wanting to be "underestimated" anymore after experiencing the reaction her female regeneration receives; while Yaz believes there's so much to the Doctor that people wouldn't be able to handle it if they knew everything about her. This leads to a very telling reveal from the Doctor, one that echoes back to what we learn by the end of Series 12 (make sure to read the full short story here):

"'Well, I certainly can't. I'm a bit too much for me. I'm more than I knew about. Still processing all that. I sometimes think that's why I change personality instead of just making my body younger. I need to switch myself off and on again so I can handle all the memories, so a lot of it feels like it happened to someone else. I get a different perspective on what I've done. I've been thinking a lot about that lately. There's this girl in a mirror. Where I put her. That doesn't suit who I am now. When we get out of here… Oh, this is getting deep and meaningful, isn't it?'"

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